I appreciate that you include some figures, but they are not an apples/apples comparison. Subsidies aside, I understand that petroleum derived fuel is cheaper than ethanol derived fuel on a BTU to BTU basis.
It depends on Oil and Corn prices. At one point it was similar in some places but now Ethanol is almost as expensive per gallon as Gasoline($3 Ethanol rack prices vs $3.35)! I've heard FFVs actually lose 15% with E85 instead of 20-25% and newer FFVs are better so what is a reasonable price varies with the car and driver.
Since we are talking about energy sources to propel vehicles, it only makes sense to talk in terms of actual cost to produce x amount of energy. From what I've read, it takes a lot of petroleum energy to produce the biofuel. In fact, I have heard that we expend many times more energy (in the form of petroleum) on growing crops than we receive back from the crops themselves.
Less than 1/10th of the energy to grown/distill Ethanol is from Petroleum, and it comes from Diesel for farm equipment and fertilizers/chemicals. The bulk of the energy is actually from Coal and Natural Gas. The lifecycle process to make Ethanol takes less Fossil Fuel than it returns. 2.3:1 BTUs not gallons like some people have been suggesting: USDA blog.
Meaning we import 1/3 of oil required to produce the ethanol?
We use 2/3 less Petroleum with E85, it takes some Oil to make it and we mix it with 15% Gasoline (which is cheaper natural Gasoline according to a couple sources). We import 2/3 of our Petroleum so theoretically the Petroleum used for making/blending E85 could be all domestic.
We need transparency in our government. Subsidy information should be readily available online by the public, along with all the other gov't expenditures. It's our money, why can't we have oversight on how it's spent? Wasn't Obama supposed to deliver this?
I agree. But what else is new? We need change not the same old promises of change and then failure to deliver.
Ethanol as a fuel source should not have to be subsidized, mandated, and propagandized to make it in the market. If ethanol is truly cheaper per BTU than other fuel sources, then you won't be able to stop consumers from demanding it.
I'm not a big fan of subsidies, but subsidizing Domestic energy production makes economic sense. We did it for early Petrol and we're using it for renewable energy production. Making a welfare industry does not make sense. If Ethanol couldn't compete WITH subsidies it's more likely to fail before long, the gov't can't keep funding welfares programs. But I believe there is a point when Ethanol could support itself and flourish once it reaches a critical mass.
I don't believe ethanol will ever displace a large percentage of petroleum. My money is on batteries and rising fuel prices.